It is what it is
by ohmypreciousgirl
Summary: "I love you, Damon. You should know that."


Elena sits nervously on the edge of her mattress, her mind reeling over the events of the past week: her break up with Stefan after the Prom and the realization of her true feelings for Damon. It's still hard to wrap her head around everything that occurred, but she is dealing with it. She hasn't lost her mind over it yet, so she had faith everything would go well. She just needed to gather courage and tell Damon the things she discovered about herself this week. It's only fair after everything she put him through. He needs to be the first person to hear how she feels.

"So, are you going to tell me anytime soon why you called me or are you going to spend the night fidgeting in your seat, staring at me?", he says impatiently. She licks her lips and nods. _It's now or never_, she thinks.

"I broke up with Stefan last weekend," she tells him. He frowns for a second, before putting on his indifferent face.

"Yeah, so?"

Elena sighs, knowing it's all act. She knows she hurt him deeply when she chose Stefan all those months ago, but she needed to make that choice. It was the right thing to do at that moment; she wasn't ready to let Stefan go or to embrace her true feelings for Damon. But whatever doubts she had are gone and she's finally ready to give Damon what he wants.

"Damon, stop, okay? Can you listen to me or not?"

"By all means, please continue," he says, nonchalantly. She tries her best to not lose her temper and scream at him to drop the act because it isn't fooling her at all. But she understands why he's doing it, so she lets it slide doesn't mention his cold act.

"When I chose to come back to Stefan, I thought what we had was the real thing. I really believed we could leave everything we went through behind us because we loved each other. I thought he was my true love, but now… I can't believe what Stefan and I have is true love. It can't be. How could it be true love if I have feelings for someone else? He was supposed to be my only choice, Damon. Not my first option."

He doesn't say anything, his face not showing a single emotion while he looks at her. Elena takes it as encouragement to keep talking.

"Going back to him made me realize how strong my feelings are for you," she says softly. "I had to break up with Stefan because it was wrong to be with him when you were the only thing on my mind."

Elena gets up and takes a few steps, invading his personal space and putting her hands upon his face

"I love you, Damon. You should know that."

She sees him gasps slightly, surprise crossing his face for only a moment before becoming devoid of emotion once more. He averts his eyes and keeps quiet, making Elena worry about his unresponsive state.

"Damon, aren't you going to say anything?"

"What do you want me to say, Elena?" he retorts, his restrained voice matching his blank expression. Elena blinks, confused by his reaction, but she answers him tentatively with a small smile on her lips.

"You're supposed to say 'I love you too, Elena'."

They stare at each other for a moment, and then Damon grabs her wrists with his hands.

"I can't say that, Elena," he tells her sounding deadly serious. "I can't because I don't believe you."

Elena feels the panic running through her veins when Damon takes her hands off his face. She feels the lump forming at the back of her throat and the tears burning at the back of her eyes, wanting to be released and yet she can't manage to make a sound. She tries to speak, but Damon cuts her off.

"Don't cry, Elena," he tells her while he takes a step back. "You have no right to cry."

He gives her another look, before he whispers, "Goodnight, Elena".

She watches him walk away from her, her heart breaking slowly with each step he takes. She only let herself cry when she hears the door close.

* * *

**A.N.:** First, I want to say thanks to my beta Vicky (aka efferentsignals tumblr) for her awesome work, then I want to say thanks to Caroline (aka rebellious-heart tumblr) for giving me the idea to write this fic. This is my first Damon/Elena fanfiction, I'm really happy I finished this one. Comments are welcome :D I hope you enjoyed it!


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